This year has been an eventful one for markets in more ways than one with a U.S. election, the start of a Federal Reserve rate-cutting cycle, and escalating geopolitical tensions.
A few stocks have had a bumpier ride than others, though.
Super Micro Computer, which fell 2.8% ahead of the open Monday, topped the list of S&P 500's most volatile stocks in 2024. With the year the artificial intelligence server maker has had, that hardly comes as a surprise.
The stock, trading under the ticker SMCI, hit a record high of $119 in March, fueled by booming demand for AI-related products and services such as Super Micro's cloud servers. Shares, however, plummeted to just $18 a few months later after its auditor resigned saying it didn't want to be associated with the company's financial statement. Subsequently, the stock rose almost 30% after Super Micro said an independent committee found no evidence of fraud or misconduct, and appointed a new auditor.
Measured as the standard deviation of share price changes (a statistical term measuring the spread of a value from its mean) Super Micro had a volatility score of 7.6, according to Dow Jones Market Data -- almost double that of those next on the list: Globe Life, Palantir Technologies and Tesla.
Shares of software company Palantir saw a meteoric rise this year and is now one of the Nasdaq's most expensive stocks, fetching almost 170 times forward earnings. It posted blowout earnings reports in February and November and the stock jumped 30% and 23% in the following trading sessions.
Electric vehicle maker Tesla has risen 74% this year, boosted by Donald Trump's return to the White House in January. Shares have rallied as investors hope its CEO Elon Musk's friendly relationship with the President-elect will benefit the company. Shares rose 15% the day following the presidential election, making up for a 9% single-day drop in October when Musk's "Robotaxi" event disappointed.
Insurer Globe Life had a relatively steady 2024 -- apart from one big hiccup. In April, it went from being the S&P 500's largest loser one day to its best performer the next after an anonymous short seller published a report accusing Globe Life of financial misconduct. Shares crashed 53%, to then recover after the insurer countered the allegations and threatened legal recourse.
Solar equipment maker and installer Enphase Energy also made the list of most volatile stocks of the year, amid a terrible year for solar stocks as investors fear Trump will be bad for renewable energy companies.
Texas-based electricity and power generation company Vistra Corp., however, has gained 263% in 2024 as it benefits from the AI-trend which is causing electricity demand to spike. The company joined the S&P 500 in May.
In the health sector, pharmaceutical company Moderna and medical device maker DexCom struggled this year, taking some big hits on the way. DexCom plunged 40% after an earnings report in June. Moderna has fallen about 60% this year as it tried to diversify beyond Covid-19-related products.
Chip makers Broadcom and Nvidia, AMD and Intel were also among S&P 500's 25 most volatile stocks in 2024.
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